Mildred Pierce executive producer/ director Todd Haynes has re-teamed with the HBO miniseries' executive producers John Wells and Christine Vachon for another period HBO project -- drama series Dope. Just like Mildred Pierce, which starred Oscar winner Kate Winslet, an A-list feature actress, Julianne Moore, is circling Dope, which is based on Sara Gran's novel. Haynes would potentially direct the project, now in development, from a script by Gran who adapted her book. Dope takes place in New York around 1950 and centers on a woman who reenters her life after being away at the farm to treat her heroin addiction and becomes a private eye. Dope would extend Moore's relationship with HBO. She stars in the pay cable network's upcoming film about the 2008 Presidential election, Game Change, portraying former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. The Depression era Mildred Pierce is the most nominated program at the upcoming 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards with 21 noms, including one in the newly consolidated best movie/miniseries category.

Personal Magnificent Obsessions which features exhibits on Haynes, Ed Harris, Alfred Hitchcock, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Ennio Morricone, and many more, is on view at the Museum of the Moving Image through August 19.

Todd Haynes is newly attached to direct Number 9’s drama Carol, set to star Cate Blanchett and Mia Wasikowska.

The Oscar-nominated director of Far from Heaven will reunite with Blanchett, who starred in his acclaimed Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There in 2007, for which the actress won a Golden Globe.

Number 9’s Elizabeth Karlsen is lead producer alongside Stephen Woolley while Haynes’ regular collaborator Christine Vachon will co-produce the project.

The film is also backed by Film4 and HanWay handles sales.

Haynes and Vachon were in Cannes together in 1998 with Competition title Velvet Goldmine.

Carol is an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novella, The Price of Salt, which follows a relationship between two women in 1950s New York: a girl in her twenties, played by Wasikowska, who works in a department store but dreams of a more fulfilling life and a wife trapped in a loveless, moneyed marriage.

Karlsen, producer of Great Expectations and Byzantium, told Screen: “Todd is without a doubt one of the most talented directors working today. His attachment to direct this script and cast is a dream come true.”

John Crowley had been due to direct the project, which was announced at Cannes in 2012, but left the film due to scheduling conflicts.

The project has long been a passion project for Karlsen, who last week spoke to the BBC about the lack of major roles for women in film.

“A recent report from the USC Annenberg School revealed the lack of major speaking parts for women in 2012,” the producer told Screen.

“As a female producer, that report has only renewed my passion and inspiration for this film because there are very few of these roles out there for the likes of Cate and Mia.”

The report found that, in 2012, women held less than one-third of speaking roles in “high-grossing” films, the lowest number since 2007.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

Christian Bale May Reteam With Todd Haynes For Political Drama 'Act Of God'via The Playlist

It's been two years since Todd Haynes' outstanding HBO miniseries "Mildred Pierce," and frankly that's two years too long. But he's quietly been brewing some projects in the background. Earlier this year, it was announced he was teaming with Cate Blanchett and Mia Wasikowska for "Carol," based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, but not much has been heard since. Now, another project is surfacing and it could find him working again with an actor who has anchored his more musical-based films.

Christian Bale, who starred in the glamtacular "Velvet Goldmine" and the Bob Dylan anti-biopic "I'm Not There," has been offered the lead role in "Act Of God." If Bale takes the part, he'll play a regular Kansas man who gains notoriety across the nation after taking his local government to task following a devastating tornado. This is going be less natural disaster drama and more of a political exploration if it's anything like what Haynes told us about the project last year.

“It’s sort of about the great middle of this country and their sort of suspicions about government,” he told us an interview. “And how that keeps clicking into conservative politics and the way the right makes use of those uncertainties. There’s interesting reasons why people feel the way they do, outside of the coasts and outside of the clear liberal orthodoxy, and that interests me. It’s been too effective, that allegiance, for too many years, and I’m curious about it. So we’re kind of getting inside that process.”

There's no word if the project has backing or when it might shoot, but we'd wager this is the kind of movie that lives or dies on drawing a big name. We'd guess if Bale signs—and his schedule seems pretty clear at the moment—all the other pieces will start falling into place.

The Weinstein Co. acquired Carol at the tail end of Cannes this year. At the time, Mia Wasikowska was attached to star opposite Cate Blanchett in the story of a burgeoning relationship between two very different women in 1950s New York. Wasikowska is no longer in the mix and Rooney Mara has become attached to the role of a young woman working in a department store and hoping for a better life. Blanchett is playing a wife trapped in a loveless marriage who’s desperate to break free but fearful of losing her daughter in the process.

Far From Heaven helmer Todd Haynes is directing the drama that’s based on the novella The Price Of Salt by The Talented Mr Ripley author Patricia Highsmith. Phyllis Nagy (Mrs Harris) penned the adaptation. Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley of Number 9 Films are producing with co-financing from Flim4. Christine Vachon’s Killer Films will co-produce. HanWay Films is handling international sales and also has deals in place with eOne in Canada, Icon in Australia and TF1 in France. Shooting starts in spring next year. Blanchett is coming off of a highly-praised turn in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine. Mara will next be seen in Spike Jonze’s Her and Stephen Daldry’s Trash. She’s repped by WME.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

Over four years ago, Witherspoon was attached to star in a biopic of legendary jazz singer Peggy Lee, to be written and directed by "Sleepless In Seattle" helmer Nora Ephron. There's been little news of the project since, and when Ephron passed in 2012, most assumed that the film was dead, but in an on-stage interview last night at TIFF, Witherspoon revealed (via B. Ruby Rich) that the project's back on, and none other than Todd Haynes is going to be directing.

Haynes is no stranger to the music biopic: he broke through with unauthorized Carpenters pic "Superstar," continued the trend with fictionalized glam-rock tale "Velvet Goldmine," and his last theatrical film was Bob Dylan portmanteau "I'm Not There." It's been a long absence since then, with only HBO miniseries "Mildred Pierce" filling the gap, but Haynes will be back next year with Cate Blanchett/Rooney Mara starrer "Carol," and it looks like he's already lined up something after with this project.

Details are pretty thin still, but we've got our fingers crossed that this could be before cameras as soon as next year, ahead of a potential release in 2016.